Crabtree Observing Transit of Venus, 1639

Observation of the transit of Venus by William Crabtree in 1639. Engraving from a painting by Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893). William Crabtree (1610aEUR'1644) was an English astronomer and mathematician. He was one of only two people (the other being the astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks) to observe and record the first predicted transit of Venus in 1639. A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena and historically of great scientific importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of the size of the Solar System. They occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

1639 Astronomer Crabtree Planetary Transit

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > PHR